Over the last few days and weeks, several areas in Syria entered a new phase of military escalation. Residential areas, civilian objects, and medical facilities were targeted in a clear and major breach of international law. This has led to the death and injury of hundreds of civilians according to the documentation of Syrian and international independent human rights organizations. This is especially the case in Eastern Ghouta, Idlib, and Afrin.

Various developments and military escalations over the last few years have resulted in the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of residents from the provinces of Aleppo, Homs, and rural Damascus. This occurred as part of a systematic policy that could amount to a war crime. The forcibly displaced were placed in Idlib and rural Aleppo. They now live with the residents of these areas under Syrian and Russian aerial bombardment, even though a large part of these areas falls under a ‘de-escalation’ agreement announced earlier in Astana. At the same time, more than a quarter of a million civilians live under a total siege in Eastern Ghouta for a fifth consecutive year now. They live under extremely difficult and dire human conditions and endure artillery and rockets strikes, as well as improvised and unguided barrel bombs that have no specific military objective expect to destroy everything they fall upon.

The scale of the Syrian tragedy is beyond what words can describe. Or what can be dealt with in a few lines. It has become clear that lives of civilians have no value within all current calculations on the ground in Syria.

It is noteworthy that approaching Geneva talks coincide with major and dangerous military escalations that the civilian population always pays the highest price for.

The Syrian institutions signatories to this letter believe that it is their duty to draw the attention of the international community to the following:

The utmost priority now in Syria is an immediate end to military escalation and the protection of civilians in their locations. In addition to the delivery of food and medical assistance to besieged areas in order to end the siege and the destruction of the capabilities of an entire population.

It would be a futile attempt to consider a political settlement that encompasses constitutional drafting, reconstruction plans, or early recovery, without immediate international pressure for a ceasefire and for the protection of civilians. A constitution is meant to serve residents, and efforts in constitutional drafting would be meaningless if the residents continue to be killed. And it is expected that any effort for reconstruction should go towards rebuilding the capabilities of these residents. This means that the donor conference in Brussels should firstly aim at encouraging a decision at the Geneva processes to immediately end military operations, then paving the way for any reconstruction efforts.

The United Nation’s failure time and again in delivering humanitarian aid to Syria threatens to repeat the crisis of Aleppo in other parts of Syria, and in Ghouta in particular. The international organization has the capacity to ensure the immediate delivery of humanitarian aid to besieged residents, provided that there is a will to do so and that this case is not subjected to military outcomes and compromised in political engagement processes.

For this reason, the Syrian institutions signatories to this letter announce that their effective participation in the upcoming Geneva rounds, and the upcoming donor conference in Brussels, will depend on the international response to ending the military operations and the targeting of civilians. This is through:

Serious and feasible pressure to immediately end military operations, including the Syrian and Russian governments’ recent military escalations in Idlib and the Damascus Ghouta.

Beginning a serious and feasible plan for the delivery of food and medical supplies to besieged areas and those in need through UN humanitarian airdrops over the areas in need.

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Shaml is a coalition of seven Syrian CSOs that have gathered around four leading democratic civic right values and aim to integrate these values in their wide range of services they provide in Syria. To include human rights advocacy, education, women’s empowerment, peace-building, conflict transformation, local governance technical capacity-building, and humanitarian assistance. With the ultimate goal of promoting these values within the Syrian society and make them become widely accepted.